Browns rookies see Hall of Fame up close

The Pro Football Hall of Fame threw Browns fans a bone Wednesday as the team’s rookies were in for a meet and greet. And they tore after it.

Brady Quinn and Joe Thomas joined an evening visit co-sponsored by the Canton Browns Backers. The parking lot was stuffed to the gills.

You’ll never see a livelier night at the museum.

Retired wide receiver Jerry Butler, whose insights trace to being a former No. 5 overall draft pick, thinks it would be nuts not capitalize on the proximity of the Browns to the Hall of Fame.

Butler, the Browns director of player development, organized the Hall of Fame trip for rookies a third straight year.

“It’s pretty cool,” Thomas, the new left tackle, said just outside the bronze busts room.

Wednesday’s turnout suggested this was more than a scarf-an-autograph-for-eBay exercise. It said the Browns, bummer slump notwithstanding, are hot. It said buildup to the Sept. 9 opener against Pittsburgh will be a blast.

“I’m kind of anticipating a great, great season,” Butler said.

It’s great folly to bank on Quinn being a great quarterback in 2007. Rookies don’t go there.
Quinn is, however, contributing to the buzz.

His Ohio roots resonated as he talked amid the growing crowd. He played for Dublin Scioto in a state semifinal game. Had his team not lost to Cincinnati Xavier, his next game would have been against St. Ignatius in the big-school final at Fawcett Stadium, right next to where he was spending Wednesday.

Just two days earlier, Quinn and Thomas tag-teamed throwing out first pitches at an Indians game.

“I tried to put a little something on it without throwing out my arm,” said Quinn, who threw in the high 80s as a high school junior before reluctantly saying goodbye to baseball.

Quinn eschewed talking contract, which will be a story in July. He didn’t mind talking longterm, inspired to an extent by hanging out near Otto Graham’s bust.

“I visited the Hall when I was a kid,” he said. “I took it a little bit for granted.

“Now you’re gonna be playing in the NFL. Now you realize this is the goal. Winning championships. Having the opportunity to hopefully go down as one of the greatest quarterbacks to play the game.”

Presumptious bluster?

“If you don’t think you’re gonna win championships and be one of the best players ever,” Quinn said, “you’re fooling yourself. You’re not gonna make it.

“In your head, these are things you need to visualize every time you step on the field.”

Quinn was drafted at No. 22 overall out of Notre Dame. Thomas, a No. 3 overall pick who was a big cheese at Wisconsin, is under pressure to start right away.

No one is particularly worried that, whereas Quinn fired a strike at Jacobs Field on Monday, Thomas was just a bit high.

“They told me to throw higher than I thought I needed to,” Thomas said. “They said the guy who threw out the first pitch the day before misjudged throwing off a mound and dribbled it in. I threw it higher than I needed to, I guess.”

The bar has been set low by Browns offensive lines of the expansion era. Thomas, however, hopes to develop in the tradition of Browns linemen from bygone glory days.

The franchise has a right tackle (Mike McCormack) and a left tackle (Lou Groza) in the Hall of Fame. One guard (Joe DeLamielleure) is in, and another (Gene Hickerson) will be bronze busted this summer. Center Frank Gatski gives the Browns a Hall of Famer at every line spot.

Coincidentally, Thomas paid his first visit to the Hall just a few days after Hall-of-Fame member Anthony Munoz, a Bengals left tackle, was in the house.

Munoz said he has heard a lot about Thomas and is eager to see him play.

“I’m trying to get film on Munoz,” Thomas said. “My assistant line coach with the Browns played with him, so ...

“The technique has changed a little, but it’ll be fun to study a great player.”

Fun?

That’s old game film for Browns fans. They seem to have an inkling they’ll find some soon.